Nationals Sign Mike Gonzalez

1:33pm: Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com tweets that Gonzalez will earn $1.5MM if he makes the roster and has $750K worth of incentives in his deal as well.

7:31am: The Nationals announced that they have signed lefty Mike Gonzalez to a minor league deal with an invitation to Major League Spring Training (Twitter link). Gonzalez is represented by the MVP Sports Group.

Usually one to hold lefties in check, the 35-year-old Gonzalez struggled in that regard last season, surrendering a .274/.336/.443 batting line to opposing lefties en route to a 4.68 ERA in 50 innings with the Brewers. However, his career mark of .219/.287/.346 is a significant improvement from last year's split, and he's just one season removed from posting a 3.03 ERA with 9.8 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 in 2012 — a season he spent with the Nationals.

I use to love the combo of Mike Gonzalez and Raphael Soriano with the Braves. Of course that was in 2009. Glad to see the Nationals putting them together again. Too bad they are shells of their former selves. All jokes aside, a minor league deal with Gonzalez seem like a pretty good move.

Even when he had the good stretch with the Nats in 2012, he’d been picked up after no one else wanted him. I doubt they expect much, it’s probably more the courtesy of giving a former player a shot to see what he has left like they did with Bill Bray last year.